I was back in my unfinished second floor. The snow and ice faded from my mind. (Only partly, I was always thinking about ice and snow.)

The first thing that hit me was how unsightly the place looked. After dreaming about tundras and snowy skies, this rocky place looked like a down right travesty.

There was the dark figure I saw while acquiring the attribute but I pushed them from my mind. If they weren’t directly interfering with my ice making, I wasn't going to heed them any mind. Come to think of it, I’ve kind of been regarding the drake outside in the same light.

His raids have been more helpful than anything. So I’ll ignore the dark glares and increasing angry hisses he sends into the cave. I might have to deal with him sooner rather than later but for now there were creatures for me to get!

I pulled up the available selections.

[Basic monsters: next unlock at level 15

Shivering Slimes

Wolf

Dazzle Koi

Worooh

Mistworm

Silver fox

Stoat

Snowy Owl

Goose

Shadeling]

[Basic creatures: next unlock at level 15

Snow hare

Char

Common snowbird

Ptarmigan

Crayfish

Lemming

Mistwisp

Seagull

Snow mouse

Koi ]

[Basic flora: next unlock at level 15

Common blue mushroom

Cave root

Common Coral

Common Fern

Snowberry

Mint]

Well alrighty then. A more wintery based theming, which is so much better. A lot of my previous selections were at least partly ice themed but this seems to be moving away from the water theme, much like myself.

Monsters were the hardest to pick from, as there was a lot there that I would want. I chose to table that choice for now. Plus, not to spoil anything, but I already had a monster to put on the floor from the raids.

That left a creature and a flora.

I was removing the water based animals out of the pool, which left me with snow hares, snowbirds, ptarmigans, lemmings, mistwisps, and snow mice. I actually knew what ptarmigans were before looking up their descriptions and they were basically just a family of snowbirds, which if the system was proceeding in the way that it had been, snowbirds might lead into ptarmigans later down the line.

The lemmings, snow hares and snow mice were also off the list, as the monster I had ready was already a small mammal, and I feel like doubling down on that idea isn’t great right now. That left mistwisps or snow birds, and I did not have to think about this much. Floor two was going to be a very natural area, and wisps are more supernatural. Plus, I could also use them on floor three!

[Common Snowbirds: A small blue bird that lives in cold climates. Their birdsong is considered key to winter forest ambiance. There is nothing else interesting about this beyond what was stated.]

The Flora was a bit harder. I technically had a flora at the ready with the oftengreens, so I wasn’t worried about that. Chances were that whatever I chose would be more decorative foliage than anything else. After throwing away most non ice related things, I was left with either snowberries or mints.

[Snowberries: Berries that grow in cold weather. They are the additional food source of many cold weather inhabitants. While very poisonous to the sapient, it isn’t deadly, and when treated correctly can become a useful potion material.]

[Mint: A fan favorite flavoring herb. While it has very little practical use, its strong icy flavor has won the hearts of millions around the world.]

It came down to either practicality or flavor, and I couldn’t decide.

I suppose I didn’t have to decide now. I could just leave the decision for later. Hmmm…

After some thought, I decided to leave the selection for a monster and flora for later. For a time when I feel more decisive.

With that (kind of) (okay, not really) out of the way for now, the next step was to start on the second room.

Part one of this project was to make the room both taller and wider. Right now it was the size of a rat in height and width. My goal was to make it a very open area, so using [Investments] I set it to automatically make the room bigger over time. I did the same for floor three, but since it was going to be a relatively smaller area, I put it on a lower priority.

I manually expanded the room to at least the size of a door near floor three in order to do some experimenting.

Then came the main focus of the floor. I formed ice around the ceiling of the little room and refined it down to a more powdery ice. Then that powdery ice was refined further, until all that was left were single flakes of the white gold. The good shite. The conja. The maryjamig.

Snow.

I’m pretty sure I screamed loud enough that even Xylia, who couldn’t hear my voice, jumped at the sound.

But who cares!

I had snow! Actual snow! In my dungeon! If there was anything worth celebrating, it was Christmas, Hanukkah, the winter solstice, the infinite number of other winter holidays, and this!

GASP! Jimmy Chirstmas! This is the first snow of the season!

I remember standing by my window for hours just to get the first glimpse of the first snowfall of the season when I was a child. I’d just sit still for a couple of hours watching the snow collect on the ground.

By the time I began focusing on other things (I wasn’t going to stop staring at snow now or forever) the second floor was significantly larger and a couple of inches of snow had formed on the ground. I set [Investments] to keep producing snow for now. In the future, I might want to change the weather up (Blasphemy as it might seem.) because sunlit snow is also a really nice aesthetic and constant blizzards, as much as that would be my dream, aren't to everyone's taste.

But for now, I just began planting a few oftengreens around the floor. The main idea I was going for was a big ol’ snow field with a small forest or two lining the path towards the third floor, so the trees would be somewhat scattered. Some were left on their own, others were clustered together. There was one major cluster of trees by the left hand side that I was hoping to turn into the forest but the floor wasn’t big enough yet.

The trees weren’t very big, nor did they seem very sturdy, but I’m sure once they reach evergreen status, that will change.

The next step was to start spawning critters …and hold on a sec. Something just moved on the second floor. Why was there movement? Nothing had been spawned yet.

It took a second of looking around, I found Noelle clinging to a oftengreen. Had the first floor been too cold for her? But if anything the second floor was even colder! Hmmm…Well, as much as I could sit around thinking of reasons until my head explodes, the easier solution would just be to ask.

“Hey little buddy.” I said in my sweetest voice, “What’cha doin down here? Yule catch a cold if you’re not careful.” Her only response was a guttural growl in my direction which could have been a growl to indicate that my comment had deeply offended her innate sense of lizard pride, or a groan at the puns. And as someone who has heard both plenty of times in my life, (Don’t ask, it’s a very long story) I could tell that it was a mixture of both. “Aww, you alright buddy? You do look a bit different.”

She looked slightly larger, and a little more…brusheled. I don’t think that’s a word but she did look rougher…and bluer. In fact, she looked rather like those awful firey salamanders.

A quick check confirmed my suspicion.

[Shivering Salamander: a cousin to the sizzling salamander. Salamanders have a large natural affinity for fire, and it’s near impossible to change that. The shivering salamander is a prime example of what happens when they do change. Unlike sizzling salamanders, shivering salamanders don’t achieve this or higher forms through aging, instead having to train to achieve these forms. This only makes them more deadly.]

Cool! Not only has she achieved a more perfect form than those sizzling freaks, but she’s naturally better than them in discipline as well! I’ll have to add a couple more salamanders on the second floor! To, if nothing else, spite those other salamanders outside.

“Good job Noelle! Keep up the training!” I went to pet the lizard, only to remember that my current form was rather incorporeal at the moment.

Hmm. That would be an issue if I ever wanted to make snow angels in the future. (Which I did.) Better to take care of that now rather than later.

That just left the question of how to do that. Would just thinking of my mental image be enough? That’s harder than you’d think. Despite developing a signature look for myself, I wasn’t one to stand in front of a mirror for a long amount of time. So I honestly did not have the strongest mental image of my old self.

But I knew someone in the dungeon did!